/brg/ - Battle Rifle Guide v.08

PTR with wood furniture and bayonet

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Intro

What is a Battle Rifle?

"Battle rifle" is a post-World War II term for military service rifles that are fed ammunition via detachable magazines and fire a full-powered rifle cartridge.

What the fuck is a "full powered" cartridge?

A full-powered cartridge is a military battle rifle cartridge with a minimum effective range of 1,000 meters (3,300 ft). Most full-powered cartridges have their origin in the turn of the 19th century with the advent of smokeless powder. Examples include 7.62x51mm NATO, .30-06 Springfield, 7.62x54mmR, .303 British, 7.5x54mm French 7.92x57mm Mauser, 7x57mm Mauser or 8mm Lebel.

List of Battle Rifles

Ordered roughly by popularity

PTR-91

PTR GI

$1,000-$1,400. depending on what variant you choose. G3/HK91 clones. You're a poorfag or a NEET, hence this is the most popular rifle in /brg/. Get this if you want a solid intro into Battle Rifles for a reasonable price. Mags can be had for $6 to $10 depending on condition and whether it is steel or aluminum. It’s a classic and has a lot of cold war surplus parts floating around that allows you to incrementally upgrade and tweak it as you please. Has fluted chamber, so brass is difficult to reload. Shoots steel all day. Very modular design, so it is easy to customize or upgrade. You can make a PoorSG1, a tacticool gun, or a classic wood gun (with $30 CETME wood or $300 H&K wood). Good sites for parts and magazines are HKParts, RTG Parts, and Numrich.

DSA SA58

NATO FAL

$1,500-$2,000 depending on what variant you choose. FAL clone. You're basically playing the FAL lottery. You may get one that works fine, or one that has problems ranging from non-stop malfunctions to explosions. You can get the cheaper DSA Voyager and add after market parts (rear sight, hump stock, surplus flash hider, SAW or Mako grip, carry handle, (optional) railed dust cover, and baby poo paint. The Voyager wont accept the boat anchor bipod though. Don't buy the Korean surplus mags they're trash. If you want to build a proper FAL from an old parts kit know that it's one of the more difficult rifles to put together and requires above average shops skills. FALs don't like steel cased ammo.

AR-10

AR10

$1000-$4,000 depending on parts selected. If you go this route you're admitting to everyone that you're a basic bitch. Only have (slight) bragging rights if you put money on an SR-25. While there are solid AR-10 prebuilt, a word of caution: if you plan on building one from the ground up or upgrading an exiting one. AR-10s are not standardized like AR-15s. The two main patterns for the AR-10 are the DPMS and ARMALITE. SR-25 parts, except for recievers, are compatable with DPMS parts. Before building or upgrading this needs to taken into account. You can put tacticool scopes, canted red dots, lasers, and flashlights on these without people wanting to kill you. A good AR-10 for a reasonable price is the Sig 716i.

Century Arms C308

C308 with Primary Arms LPVO

$700-900. CETME surplus parts hastily slapped onto a PTR made receiver. Has actually gotten significantly better in the last 4 or so years. However, price increases have brought it closer in price to actual PTRs which haven't gone up as much. Still avoid, even though they have SOVLFUL wood furniture.

M14/M1A

Bula M21

~$2,000. THE M16 IS A DAMN BB GUN. IF WE NEVER SWITCHED TO THE M14 WE WOULD HAVE WON 'NAM Go be a Fudd somewhere else, FUDD! On a serious note it’s a fun BR and a classic to have but difficulty of properly mounting optics is a serious issues to consider when looking at one. This can be mitigated but it comes to how much time and money you want to spend on it. Also M1Afags are required to be boolied on /brg/ BUT in any other thread you have to defend them to the death.

FN SCAR-17

~$3,200-3,600. Congratulations, you richfag! You either make a lot of money working a moderately successful career, saved up money for a few years just for this one gun, or are running up your parents credit card you fucking Fortnite Zoomer. Oh, and have fun spending another $1k-$3k on optics and other after market parts on this fucking cash cow. That all being said the Scar 17s is the best BR you can buy. It low recoil, reliability, ease of field stripping, and accuracy are second to none. After market parts are abundant but can add weight quick. Expect ~1.5 moa with surplus and 1 moa with match.

Note: Scar-20s is NOT a Battle Rifle (feel free to post yours though to further dab on the poorfags)

Galil ACE

$1,700. Israeli AK modernized with a left side charging handle and a monolithic rail. For the people who want an AR-10, but also want to overpay and support the greatest ally. Should've gotten the ARM instead but while you're here you might want to look into a plastic delete kit and a KNS piston.

Galil ARM

$3,000+ if prebuilt. The real Galil and a better .308 AK than the .308 Saigas. You definitely want to get a parts kit since building one will be slightly less expensive. Either you really like Way of the Gun or you're the archetypical "greatest ally" boomer who needs to purchase every Israeli thing.

MAS 49/56

MAS 49/56

$700-1,500. French battle rifle. You are an unashamed hipster if you want one of these. Get better taste in YouTube channels. Beware that the cheapest ones tend to be Ethiopian surplus and of low quality. Ammo is also hard to find and/or expensive.

Kel-Tec RFB

Cat

$1,400-$2,000+. Forward ejecting bullpup in .308. Uses metric FAL mags, which were abundant when it was released but are now only really available through Thermold. Adjustable gas system which can be kind of finicky, but fairly reliable once the gas is dialed in correctly. Only truly ambidextrous .308 bullpup on the market, and has a trigger that puts every other bullpup and even some standard rifles to shame. Available in a 18" version and a 24" 'Hunter' variant. Aftermarket is limited, but Lucky Irishman makes an MLok handguard to replace the stock version. Kel-Tec makes quad rails for it, but legendary Kel-Tec QC might result in the slot you're supposed to put the set screw into being slightly misaligned. Seems to like steel just fine, and some say it even prefers it.

BM59

Spaghetti Battle Rifle

$1,300-$1,800. Italian mod of the M1 Garand. Its like foreign uncle to M1A/M14. Get it if you want want M1A but Italiano spaghetti Ferrari pistachio edition.

SVT-40

$2,000-$3,000 depending on condition, variant, and how badly the Fudd wants to scam you. You want to larp a notoriously inaccurate Communist garbage rod for no logical reason, you Communist.

Desert Tech MDR

$2,700+. New bullpup 308 that everyone was super hyped for because it actually INNOVATED. Then Gen 1 got released and it was JAM CITY. lol Current Status: Waiting on reports from guinea pigs to see if the new 6 position gas upgraded fixed it. Enjoy you special weapon you special boy.

Gewehr 43

$2,000-$3,000+ depending on condition and the year built. Congrats on buying a ridiculously expensive, and over-gassed, milsurp rifle! You either have too much money burning a hole in your pocket, have questionable political beliefs, or have an absolute hard-on for all the WW2 rifles that you can possibly get your hands on.

BAR

$1,200-$20,000 Depending on if you want a new semi auto clone or a 70 year old full auto. You have a rifle that's heavy as a boulder and that kicks like mual. You're either a dumb hipster/rich oldfag/ or your grand daddy snuck one back from the war. Also not actually a Battle Rife. It was more of jack of all trades that functioned best as a SAW but it had quite a few variants. The Colt variant is probably closes to what would be thought of as actual BR.

AG-42/Hakim

$600-1,000. A Swedish design later sold and produced by the Egyptians, featuring a "true DI" gas system. Hakims have an adjustable gas system whereas the AG-42 doesn't. If you buy a Hakim, be sure to close the gas port up before firing and slowly opening it between shots so you don't throw too much gas back and damage anything. You wanted a WWII era battle rifle but every other option was way overpriced, that or your a masochist who wants to see if they do bite harder than a Garand.

FG-42

$5,500-300,000+. Only a few dozen real ones in the U.S. and they go for hundreds of thousands at auctions. Innovative Nazi design that fired from a closed bolt in semi-auto and an open bolt in full-auto. Unfortunately this provides no benefit to the semi-auto only reproductions. SMG Guns does very faithful reproductions for roughly $5500 in either 8mm Mauser or .308. Good ergonomics and recoil, unsure about reliability as there are so few.

Optics

Note: Scars are the (cheap) scope killer. With its insanely large bolt carrier group, it can knock an optic off center pretty quick and even damage the actual scope after a few hundred rounds. But it’s not as big a deal as some anons make out to be; and you're generally won’t have to worry about it as long as you have a decent optic.

LPVOs

You fell for the meme. Good ones include the Primary Arms 1-8x, Kahles K16i 1-6x, and the Swampfox Arrowhead 1-10x. First focal plane optics are better in that the markings remain accurate at any magnification, while second focal plane optics allow the reticle to be easily seen at all magnifications.

Normal Optics

ACOG

Period Correct Optics

SUSAT, Hendsoldt Z-24 4x28

Mounts

SWFA mounts allow you to still use the iron sights.

Build Guides and Resources

AR-10

>"build"
Buy lower. Buy upper. Put upper on lower.

FAL

PDF Guide for autistic T48 (Early FAL) building
How to build a FAL L1A1 or Imbel (Inch and metric) complete tutorial
The types of recievers:
FAL Recievers

G3/PTR/CETME

Playlist of many useful G3 build guides and videos
Types of bayonets and bayonet lugs
Bayonets by country:
G3 Bayonets

Ammo

TL;DR: Look on AmmoSeek for current pricing. If you find some for cheaper, share it with us.

The .308 is a civilian version of the 7.62 NATO. The .308 has a higher pressure than its military counterpart meaning all guns designated for .308 will accept 7.62 but not all guns designated for 7.62 will function properly with .308. You shouldn’t have a problem even with most new rifles. It's just something to keep in mind.

If you're going hunting, remember that lower grain for small game (I.E. east of the Mississippi white tail) and higher grain for big game (I.E. elk).

On Steel vs Brass Case

Since the Russian ammo ban has not yet fully kicked in you can still find steel case ammo for relatively cheap. As of October 5, AmmoSeek shows Tula and Red Army Standard hovering around $0.50 per round, while the cheapest brass is in the $0.67 to $0.70 range. As the existing import licenses dry up, it is expected that the price will slowly increase to the point of no longer being cost efficient over brass cased. Steel rounds elicit a variety of opinions. Some people swear by them other hate them with a passion. Generally PTRs have been found to tolerate them very well while some AR-10s have had issues with them. Apparently FALs rip up steel cases and get bits of case in the chamber. Other Battle Rifles have had mixed results, depending on the build. While brass is better overall, if you can get away with using steel for plinking there isn’t anything wrong with it. Best bet it to buy a couple packs and test it for yourself and see how your specific rifle functions with it.

Surplus

Malaysian L2A2: Comes in air tight cans of either 300 or 540. From the late 70s but still maintain a strong seals and the most of the cans are in excellent condition with only minor cosmetic blemishes on the cartridge. Not reloadable. Solid ammunition all around. While being L2A2 variant wont affect its reliability in your rifle its trajectory may be different than what your expecting. This isn't so much of issue only worth noting because you’ll have to adjust your sights more than you’d expect from standard NATO ball ammo.

Austrian Hirtenberger: Made from the mid 70s to early 80s. Probably the best surplus on the market right now. Only downside is that it doesn’t come in a sealed can. The packaging is generally packs of 10 or 20 round boxes covered in sealed plastic bag with a cardboard cover over that. Price fluctuates quite a bit though so if you see it for a good price make sure to snatch it up. Worth noting that the older batches are berdan primed while new batches are boxer. The boxer prime will generally run a few cents more per round but if you reload it might be worth it to you.

Pakistani: Made under British Supervision during the Cold war. That generally a good sign but as of yet no one on /brg/ has tried any, so the jury is out.

Indian: Same as the Pakistani surplus but without the British supervision. Also rumor is it stinks (seriously).

Ethiopian: AVOID AT ALL COST. Its corrosive and it's from Ethiopia. That’s all the info you need.

Conclusion

Again, if you have feedback for this pastebin, make a post in /brg/ with your suggestions,
and include "brgpastebin" (all one word) in the body so I can find it in the archives.

Remember we're all frens here.
~fin

TODO

  • Expand Optics section
  • Need more detail for FAL and AR-10 sections
  • Finish formatting and pictures

Changelog

6 September 2021: Migrated to Rentry. Now uses markdown for better formatting. Reordered sections. Fixed most spelling errors. Updated main rifle prices. Added FG-42. Added T48 guide. Split PTR91 and C308 sections.
7 September 2021: Added MAS 49/56. Added YouTube FAL guide. Cleaned up Other Battle Rifles and updated prices. Started work on Optics section. Added mechanism for anons to suggest changes/edits/additions.
30 September 2021: Added Galil ACE. Added Galil ARM. Added AG-42/Hakim. Added Kel-Tec RFB.
6 October 2021: Updated Ammo section for 2021. Added several guides (still lacking imo). Expanded PTR section. Fixed Kel-Tec RFB magazine recommendation.
17 October 2021: BIG UPDATE. Added experimental formatting, making use of cool Rentry features, including embedded images. Added table of contents. Added G3 bayonet graphic. Added FAL reciever types graphic. Fixed more grammatical errors. Reordered rifle list by approximate popularity on /brg/.

Edit
Pub: 06 Sep 2021 06:00 UTC
Edit: 02 Mar 2022 19:14 UTC
Views: 2661